Below we have reprinted the preliminary Election
Commission returns, as posted by Tanjug, the Yugoslav
news agency. The amazing thing is that despite every sort
of meddling, the U.S. has failed to bring down the
Yugoslav government. Indeed, the government coalition now
has a majority in both houses of Parliament, which
governs Yugoslavia.

This election has been quite something. Everyone
admits that the "democratic" opposition is
massively funded by US government agencies. The only
difference between this funding and what the CIA used to
do in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s is that in this case
some of the funding is open. But some of it is not so
open, with money smuggled into Yugoslavia
in suitcases full of cash.(1)

The U.S. has subjected the Yugoslav people to the most
extreme kind of intimidation. The 6th fleet is off the
shore of Croatia conducting "maneuvers".
Remember, Yugoslavia
has been subjected to attacks by the U.S. and its allies
and proxy forces for ten years, including 78 days of
bombing. So the people have reason to be concerned about
the 6th fleet. Indeed, while the 6th Fleet was
maneuvering in the Adriatic, the US was preparing to
conduct maneuvers (I believe they are to begin on the
28th) in Bulgaria and Rumania. Thus the Yugoslav people
voted while a vise of Imperial threat embraced their
country.

While holding this military stick over Yugoslav heads,
the West has also waved a carrot, promising to lift
sanctions and embrace Yugoslavia, if only the Yugoslavs
get rid of Milosevich. This is a false promise. Several
recent articles on Emperor's Clothes ( www.tenc.net )
deal with the punitive treatment Yugoslavia must expect
if the US government gets its local agents in power.

Today, the US House of Representatives voted to give
the "independent democratic" opposition $105
MILLION to continue what the U.S. press is now calling
its "populist" struggle. Not bad. They get to
be populists plus millions of dollars to line their
pockets because note that this money is not going to
solve the problems of ordinary Yugoslavs, it is going to
reward "democratic" opposition organizations
and individuals. It is bribe money. The U.S.
Establishment likes to get something for its bribes, in
this case political control.

$105 million is a lot of money in Yugoslavia. First of
all, it's a small country with 1/25th of the U.S.
population. And it is very poor, compared to the U.S.
$150 (US) a month is an OK salary in Yugoslavia; you can
live on $150 about as well as someone making $2000 in the
U.S.

So to get an idea of the effect of $105 million in
U.S. terms, multiply by 25 (for population) and 13.333
(for salary.) This means that in equivalent US dollars,
Congress just voted to pay $35 BILLION to the
"independent" opposition.

So the U.S. government is holding out a big (though
entirely deceptive) carrot and a big stick. What a spirit
of resistance, that under these circumstances the
Yugoslavs would give a majority of seats in both houses
of Parliament to the parties the U.S .wants them to dump.
This spirit of resistance is what the U.S. and Germany
have been trying to destroy for ten long years. Indeed,
Germany has been trying to break the Serbian spirit for a
hundred years, if not more.

Parliamentary Returns

The most important elections are those for the two
houses of Parliament. There, the Government Coalition of
the Socialist Party, the JUL and Montenegrin SNP have
gained an absolute majority in Parliament.

In the Presidential race, the Election Commission
returns give both Milosevich and Kostunica 40% and 48%
respectively. Since both are under 50%, a run-off is
required.

But a run-off would be bad for the DOS. Milosevich
will most likely fare better in a run-off than he did in
round one. Why? For one thing, he will get most of the
Radical Party vote. More important, many of the more
nationalist Serbs didn't vote in round one because they
didn't want to vote for Milosevich, but they will vote
for him in round two because they see Kostunica's
coalition as tied to the U.S. Kostunica's absolute
numbers may go up, but his percentage of the total could
well go down.

The U.S. has a problem. Even if Kostunica were to win
the Presidential vote, the government is controlled by
Parliament, and Parliament is solidly in the hands of the
Governing coalition. Therefore the US is using its
"democratic" opposition to try and destabilize
the situation and bring the government down.

Djindjic Attacks Official Returns,
Followed by Kostunica

At approximately 3:00 Eastern U.S. time Democratic
Party leader Zoran Djindjic publicly attacked the
Election Commission returns, claiming they were false. He
provided no evidence. This is consistent, of course.
Prior to the elections, Djindjic and the State Department
and Robin Cook and every Western newsman assured us that
Milosevich would "steal" the elections, but
never indicated how, so why provide evidence now that
"the deed has been done"?

Djindjic said his coalition would demand to see the
official returns and "compare them with ours, one by
one if necessary" and that they would reject a
runoff because "we will respect the result that was
registered on September 24." ('Reuters, 9-26-2000,
3.08 PM)

An hour later, the official candidate of the
"democratic" coalition spoke up. Vojislav
Kostunica followed Djindjic's lead, echoing the charges
of fraud and the refusal to participate in the runoff.
('Reuters, 9-26-2000, 4.10 PM)

Kostunica was picked to be the "democratic"
coalition's candidate because he had not been discredited
(like Mr. Djindjic) as an agent of the U.S. government. But as we have pointed out, (2)
Kostunica's character is not the issue because Kostunica
is not the master of his fate. He relies on the DOS
coalition and various "democratic"
organizations, like the Group of 17 economists. They in
turn rely on the U.S. government. How can Kostunica buck
these forces? They have the U.S. money; they have the
organizations; and they have the media. He has Kostunica
and a tiny political party.

The Golden Rule: He Who Has the Gold
Makes The Rules

The U.S. has given tens of millions of dollars to the
"democratic" opposition. Kostunica says he has
taken none of this money. If this is true, then Zoran
Djindjic and the other "independent" democrats
are getting it all. Djindjic has an organization able to
smuggle cash across the border ("in
suitcases" according to the N.Y. Times) (1) And
the G-17 economists, a leading component of the US-funded
opposition, has the ties to the International Monetary
Fund and the World Bank.

So Zoran Djindjic speaks at 3pm and Vojislav Kostunica
echoes him at 4. There you have it: a small example but
one that reflects the true relation of forces. Whatever
Mr. Kostunica really is, whatever he really wants,
whatever he has convinced himself he is doing, he is only
the tail. The dog is Zoran Djindjic, the G-17 economists,
Vesna Pesic, Radio B292 and the rest of the independent
democratic civil society peace activist opposition, and
they all work for the USA

Below is the Election Report from Tanjug.

***

BELGRADE, Sep 26 (Tanjug).- The Federal Electoral
Commission held a session Tuesday chaired by Borivoje
Vukicevic and announced the first preliminary results of
Yugoslav presidential election on the basis of results
processed so far for 10,153 polling stations.

Turnout was 64.16 percent, or 5,036,478 out of the
total electorate of 7,848,818. The five presidential
candidates won the following number of votes:

- Miroljub Vidojkovic 40,765 or 0.80 percent

- Vojislav Kostunica 2,428,714 or 48.22 percent

- Slobodan Milosevic 2,026,478 or 40.23 percent

- Vojislav Mihailovic 130,598 or 2.59 percent

- Tomislav Nikolic 256,876 or 5.10 percent

Invalid ballots - 3.03 percent

According to these figures, a runoff presidential
election is expected to be held.

According to the preliminary results of the federal
parliamentary elections, the distribution of seats is as
follows:

Chamber of Citizens

- DOS (Democratic Opposition of Serbia) - 59

- SPS-JUL (Socialist Party of Serbia, Yugoslav Left) -
44

- SNP (Socialist National Party) - 28

- SRS (Serbian Radical Party) - 3

- SNS (Serbian People's Party) - 2

Two seats will go to SPO, DZVM or SSJ, depending on
final

results.

Chamber of the Republics

- DOS (Democratic Opposition of Serbia) - 10

- SPS-JUL (Socialist Party of Serbia, Yugoslav Left) -
7

- SRS (Serbian Radical Party) - 2

- SPO (Serbian Renewal Movement) - 1

- SNS (Serbian People's Party) - 1

The final results will be made public
within the deadline set by the law, the Commission said.

(end)

(1) Here is the quote from the 'NY
Times' on how "democratic" opposition money
gets into Yugoslavia:

"The money from the West is going to most of
the institutions that the government attacks for
receiving it - sometimes in direct aid, sometimes in
indirect aid like computers and broadcasting
equipment, and sometimes in suitcases of cash carried
across the border between Yugoslavia and Hungary or
Serbia and Montenegro. Most of those organizations
and news media could not exist without foreign
aid." ('N.Y. Times', 9-20-2000.